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Investing.com -- Shares of Poland’s Allegro (WA:ALEP) surged more than 10% on Thursday after the e-commerce platform projected an 8-12% rise in domestic earnings for 2025 and announced plans for a share buyback program worth 1.4 billion zlotys.
Allegro, the largest online marketplace in Central and Eastern Europe, reported a strong performance in 2024, with full-year consolidated gross merchandise value (GMV) increasing 9.6% and adjusted EBITDA rising 17.9% year-on-year.
The company saw accelerated growth in its Polish operations, where full-year GMV climbed 10.8% to 60.71 billion zlotys and adjusted EBITDA advanced 21.3% to 3.59 billion zlotys. Revenue in Poland rose 19.4% to 9.5 billion zlotys.
“Allegro’s GMV crossed the PLN 60bn mark, just in time for our 25th birthday. Customers’ purchases with us grew more than three times faster than Poland’s retail sales as a whole,” said CEO Roy Perticucci in a statement. “We did well over the full financial year.”
The company also noted a robust increase in its customer base, with 15.1 million active buyers in Poland and 21 million overall across all markets. T
he Allegro Smart! subscription service saw double-digit growth, surpassing seven million users in Poland, while Allegro Pay issued loans worth 10.8 billion zlotys in 2024, a more than 30% rise from the previous year.
Internationally, Allegro expanded its reach with marketplaces in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, adding 26 million potential customers to its addressable market.
GMV in these new markets surged 68% in the fourth quarter, with revenue climbing 80%. The number of active buyers outside Poland more than doubled year-on-year to 3.3 million, surpassing the legacy user base from its acquisition of the MALL Group.
Allegro expects to complete MALL’s transformation into a lean merchant model in 2025 and projects the segment to contribute positively to group results by 2026.
Allegro forecasts domestic GMV growth of 9-11% for 2025, with revenue projected to rise 14-17% and adjusted EBITDA expected to increase 8-12%.
Consolidated GMV is seen growing by 8-11%, with total revenue up 7-11%. International GMV is projected to climb 40-50%, while revenue is expected to rise 55-65%, though the segment is still forecast to post a loss of 350-400 million zlotys.
Allegro’s rising profitability and improved cash generation have enabled the company to consider returning excess capital to shareholders.
With leverage more than halving year-on-year to 0.77 times, well below its 1.0x target, the company is balancing investment in growth with capital returns.
The share buyback proposal will be put to a vote at the annual general meeting in June.